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Care Versus Custody: Challenges in the Provision of Prison Mental Health Care

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Mental Health in Prisons

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology ((PSIPP))

Abstract

Prison mental health in-reach teams (MHIRTs) were introduced to provide the same range and quality of services to prisoners with severe and enduring mental health problems as is available to the general population (‘equivalence of care’). Drawing on a qualitative study of a MHIRT at an English prison, this chapter highlights the difficulties of striving to provide equivalent care in an anti-therapeutic environment which prioritises security and control. It argues that the team was heavily co-opted into penal governance and risk management activities and faced considerable hostility from those who saw prisoners as undeserving of care. It questions the notion of ‘healthy prisons’ and recommends that resources currently invested in the prison system be redirected into efforts to create socially just communities.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Luke Birmingham and David Morton for their contribution to the research on which this chapter is based.

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  1. University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Alice Mills

  2. University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Kathleen Kendall

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  1. Alice Mills
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Correspondence to Alice Mills .

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  1. School of Social Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Alice Mills

  2. Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Kathleen Kendall

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Mills, A., Kendall, K. (2018). Care Versus Custody: Challenges in the Provision of Prison Mental Health Care. In: Mills, A., Kendall, K. (eds) Mental Health in Prisons. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94090-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94090-8_5

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